klisemfg Chapter 184: Bad Luck for Eight Lifetimes
Chapter 184: Bad Luck for Eight Lifetimes
People all around were starting to stare. Some whispered among themselves, while others frowned and looked away.
She didn’t care about the stares. All she felt was a roiling tide of frustration and anger.
"What are you doing? You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? You just love to see me make a fool of myself, right?"
Her voice rose, sharp with accusation.
Her chest heaved violently, as if she were about to scream out all her pent-up dissatisfaction.
She stared daggers at Ling Xueshan, the rims of her eyes turning red, but she stubbornly refused to show any weakness.
"You’ve really got a problem."
Ling Zhiwei frowned, pulling his sister back two steps to stand in front of her.
His face was a mask of impatience, his gaze as cold as ice.
The more people gathered to watch, the less he wanted to explain anything.
This kind of pointless entanglement was just a waste of their time.
"Shanshan, don’t mind her. People like her, you could save them ten times and they’d still bite you. She’s an expert at biting the hand that feeds her."
With that, he tightened his grip on his sister’s wrist, preparing to turn and leave.
Just as he started to move, he caught a glimpse of Cao Jiajia’s expression out of the corner of his eye.
That familiar, twisted, yet defiant look only deepened his disgust.
Ling Xueshan didn’t say a word. She just watched Cao Jiajia quietly, an indescribable sadness in her eyes, as if she were looking at a lost and stubborn child who refused to wake up.
She didn’t argue, nor was she angry.
She sighed softly. "Let’s go, Fourth Brother. Let’s go look over there. We didn’t find anything suitable today, so we can try another place some other time."
"Let’s go, let’s go. What rotten luck, running into these two!"
Ling Zhiwei muttered as he walked quickly ahead, wishing he could leave this toxic place immediately.
The surrounding passersby heard him but felt it wasn’t their place to interfere, so they just quietly cleared a path.
Cao Jiajia wanted to chase after them and block their way, but she had barely taken a step when she saw that Hu Wenkang had already turned and walked off. He left without a word, decisively turning on his heel.
The man who had just been putting on a show of defending her didn’t even glance back.
The crowd dispersed just as quickly. No one was willing to stick around for her.
She was left standing there alone, unable to move forward or back.
She opened her mouth, wanting to call out a name, but in the end, no sound came out.
Tears streamed traitorously down her face; no matter how hard she tried to hold them back, they wouldn’t stop.
’She couldn’t understand how she’d ended up like this.’
’Where had the old Cao Jiajia gone—the one who was cherished and pampered, who walked around with her head held high?’
’Why did she feel so humiliated every time she saw Ling Xueshan, as if she’d been stripped bare?’
The scene from just now replayed over and over in her mind, and the more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt.
Everything had changed now, and she didn’t know where it had all started to go wrong.
After hiding in a corner of the mall restroom to cry her eyes out, she dragged herself back.
The mirror reflected her smeared eye makeup and red-rimmed eyes.
These days, no one at home cared about her.
Her father had started a new family and paid her no mind. Getting any living expenses from him was out of the question.
Her stepmother greeted her with cold and sarcastic remarks every day, and even her two young step-siblings had learned to look at her strangely.
Her place in the old family home existed in name only. Her room was empty and cold, and there wasn’t even anyone to help her put away her seasonal clothes.
Her own mother had also gradually grown distant.
The Liu Family’s business was getting bigger and bigger, and her mother had earned a lot of money by marrying out, yet she was merciless when it came to shorting her own daughter.
The money she was promised each month was always late, and there was always a long list of excuses.
Sometimes she’d say funds were tight, other times that an investment was critical. In the end, not a single cent would appear.
After she failed the college entrance exams, even that last little bit of allowance was gone.
Her calls were hung up on immediately, and her texts went unanswered.
She tried going to her mother’s home, only to be stopped by the security guards at the community gate.
The mother who was once closest to her—now, even seeing her was an extravagant hope.
To survive, she could only rely on her looks to get by, latching onto Hu Wenkang, a good-for-nothing rich kid who did nothing but fool around all day.
At first, it was just accompanying him to dinners and shopping trips. Later, they were seen coming and going together all the time.
He would occasionally buy her a bag or some jewelry, but it was mostly to show off.
Photos of them together had circulated on social media, attracting a lot of attention.
Although he didn’t treat her with much consideration, he at least covered her three meals a day and allowed her to wear decent clothes.
He paid her rent, and the water, electricity, and gas bills were always paid on time.
She knew her position in this relationship was awkward, but she had no better options.
Compared to being homeless, this life was at least a way to barely get by.
For Cao Jiajia, this was the best she could hope for at the moment.
The first thing she did every morning was check her phone for new messages.
She would hope for him to show up, bringing a little spending money or taking her out for a nice meal.
Her world was getting smaller and smaller, her range of activity limited to the commercial district and her rented apartment.
But today, she had just walked through her mother’s door when, faced with her mother’s sharp tongue, she immediately lost her appetite.
The food on the table was steaming hot, but her stomach felt tight.
Her mother sat across from her, criticizing her relentlessly, her tone harsh and unforgiving.
The words were like needles stabbing into her ears, every sentence a denial of her very existence.
"So young, yet your mind isn’t on the right path. I raised you for nothing! You can’t even get into a bachelor’s program. Tell me, what’s the point of you even being alive?"
"So people who don’t get into college just deserve to be called worthless?"
Cao Jiajia’s eyes stung, and tears streamed down her face.
She bit her lip, trying to hold back the tears, but the more she tried to endure it, the more they flowed.
Thinking back to running into Ling Xueshan during the day, a part of her actually started to believe her mother’s words.
The sound of her mother’s cold laughter still echoed in her ears, calling her worthless, saying she couldn’t even catch up to Ling Xueshan’s shadow.
’It’s true. She really was no good. Compared to Ling Xueshan, she wasn’t even worth a little finger.’
Ling Xueshan had good grades, a good family background, and she was beautiful. She was measured in both her words and actions.
’And what about her? All she knew how to do was cry.’
She even had to beg her boyfriend humbly just to get a chance to see him.
After taking a few scolding remarks, she couldn’t stand it anymore. She turned and ran out again to find Hu Wenkang and grovel.
She didn’t want to go home; she couldn’t bear to face her mother’s cold expression.
As she walked down the street, the wind stung her cheeks, but she didn’t feel a thing.
Her mind was consumed with how to make Hu Wenkang happy, how to stop him from mentioning breaking up again.
The cold words of strangers, no matter how harsh, were easier to bear than the heart-stabbing words of her own family.
When others cursed her, she could pretend not to care and forget about it as soon as she turned away.
But her parents’ words were like nails, hammered one by one into her heart. They couldn’t be pulled out, and the more she thought about them, the more they hurt.
Even if she tried desperately to prove she wasn’t useless, in their eyes, she would always fall short.
Meanwhile, the research project Shanshan was in charge of had made great progress.
All the data had been successfully run, the model was validated, and two-thirds of the first draft of the paper was complete.
This was a significant breakthrough for the entire research group, as they had previously tried more than a dozen different approaches, all of which had failed.
This success was a huge relief for everyone.
The lab instantly became lively, with smiles on everyone’s faces.
Some began discussing where to go celebrate over the weekend, while others were already clearing their desks, preparing to leave early.
Their advisor took off the old-fashioned glasses perched on his nose, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and let out a long sigh of relief.
He wasn’t young anymore, and he had been worrying a lot about this project lately.